Salespeople's good listening skills are important for the prospect of
the business. This article summarizes the different listening skills
that need to be developed.

Everyone knows the importance of good listening skills when it
comes to selling. Salespeople with good listening skills will
hear the issues their prospects have. Salespeople with good questioning
skills will identify the problems causing those issues by questioning
what their prospect says. Salespeople with both good listening
and questioning skills will be able to reiterate those problems and
issues.

Taking it one step further, a rare skill, possessed by only a fraction
of the finest salespeople - and often some of the most simple-minded of
them - is the ability to recognize that one compelling thing on which
their prospect will invest money to solve. In order for your
salespeople to develop this skill, they must be able to see the forest
through the trees. They must be able to rifle through their prospect's
list of symptoms and problems and tell the prospect the one thing that
may not even appear on the list, like, "it's clear to me that the
single biggest problem you have right now is how overwhelming this all
is..."

That prospect will spend money, with your company, right now, to no
longer feel overwhelmed by their issues and problems because your
salesperson identified that one compelling thing for which the prospect
would spend money.
Help your salespeople learn this skill and they will double or even
triple their sales in a very short period of time. In order to
have success learning this skill, your salespeople must clear their
minds, stop using their scripts, eliminate their 50 questions, and stop
presenting, They must instead ask questions that will cause their
prospect to tell them about issues, symptoms, problems, frustrations
and dissatisfaction. When their prospects begin to talk about
these issues, your salespeople must be able to dig deeper, get
clarification and learn about consequences. Most importantly,
they must be able to summarize the whole situation - put a single word
on it, like overwhelmed, or stunned, or frustrated - to identify the
single compelling reason why they might buy.

This is a compelling skill to have. The increase in competition
makes this a compelling time to have it. Can you provide your
salespeople with a compelling reason for them to develop it?